Obi criticised President Bola Tinubu’s response to the Ogbomoso school abduction, alleging the president failed to contact Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde for over 50 days.
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has accused President Bola Tinubu of failing to show leadership over the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, claiming the president had not contacted Governor Seyi Makinde more than 50 days after the incident.
In a statement released on Monday, Obi said he was shocked to learn during a recent visit to Ibadan that Makinde had not received a single phone call from Tinubu since the pupils and teachers were kidnapped.
He described the development as evidence of a worsening leadership crisis and criticised the Federal Government’s handling of insecurity.
Obi said he travelled to Ibadan on Friday alongside economist and political activist Pat Utomi to express solidarity with the Oyo governor and discuss the prolonged captivity of the victims. According to him, the meeting lasted about two hours and focused on strategies for tackling insecurity.
School abduction exposes leadership concerns
Obi said he shared his experience of managing security challenges while serving as governor of Anambra State, recalling that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan regularly contacted governors whenever serious security incidents occurred.
“But, to my utmost shock, I discovered that, contrary to my assumption that they had been in regular communication over the matter, Governor Seyi Makinde had not received a single call from President Bola Tinubu,” Obi said.
School abduction compared with Chibok response
The former Anambra governor compared the current situation with the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction, saying Tinubu had criticised then President Goodluck Jonathan for delaying contact with the Borno State governor.
“I vividly recall that the current President, Bola Tinubu, led a team of vocal critics who called for President Jonathan’s immediate resignation over the incident,” Obi said.
He argued that more than 13 school kidnappings had occurred under Tinubu’s administration and questioned why the president had allegedly failed to contact the governor after the Ogbomoso incident.
School abduction fuels criticism of insecurity
Obi said the prolonged captivity of the children and teachers had left many Nigerians feeling abandoned and described the situation as a national tragedy rather than an Oyo State issue.
“The government and people of Oyo State… should rightly feel bitter and abandoned,” he said, adding that insecurity had become one of the country’s greatest governance challenges.
The criticism comes despite previous Federal Government actions following the kidnapping. In June, the presidency announced the deployment of a specialised rescue team and approved the recruitment of 1,000 forest guards in Oyo State as part of efforts to secure the victims’ release.
School abduction prompts resignation demand
Obi concluded by calling on Tinubu to resign or decline to seek re-election if he could not provide the leadership needed to address the country’s worsening security situation.
“Amid such an apparent display of incompetence, the President should either resign or, at the very least, abstain from seeking re-election for the sake of our dear country. This call is patriotic, not political,” he said.
The presidency had not publicly responded to Obi’s latest remarks as of the time of filing this report.
